This invention relates to a machine for spreading, turning and raking together straw crops, such as hay, straw and similar materials.
The machine has means for cooperation with a three point suspension on an agricultural tractor, and has at least a first rotor and a second rotor which may rotate in concurrent or non-concurrent direction, which rotors are provided with a number of rake arms extending radially from the axles of the rotors, which rake arms carry along a part of their free length parallel rods which extend away from the longitudinal axis of the, rake arms and form rake teeth. The rake arms are provided at their radially inwards ends with rollers interacting with circumferentiaI grooves in guide devices connected to each of the axles of the rotors, which grooves follows a sequence by which the rods are moved from a first position parallel to said axles to a second position in which the rods are tilted downwards and rearwards in relation to the rotational direction of the rotors during part of the rotation, and back to the said first position during the remaining part of the rotation of the rotors in such a way that the straw crops may be caught by the rods in the said first position and deposited to the side of the rotors during the said second position.
From German printed patent specification no. 3.000.538 a machine of the above mentioned kind is known. This machine is of fixed construction and therefore is applicable only for certain standard purposes where the straw crop is uniform both in regard to size and volume.
It is therefore necessary to procure several sizes and constructions of such machines so that the individual machines may be used for the tasks for which they are specially intended.
This of course requires great investments in machines which furthermore during a great part of the year may be left unused when no straw crops appear for which they are intended
In the cultivation of straw crops, such as hay, straw and similar materials, machines are used for spreading and turning of the crops to facilitate the drying, whereafter the dry straw crops are raked together for the collection of the crop with suitable machines.
The machines for the collection of straw crops are preferably machines which during the collection gather the straws into a smooth layer of uniform thickness and width, which layer is then rolled into a spiral to form a round bale. The above mentioned machine is unsuitable for placing the straw crops in swathes in cases where the amount and/or the density of the straw crops in the field varies because the machine as a result of its fixed setting may only be adjusted in accordance with such variations with by a great deal of effort if the collection is to be effected later by means of a round-bale machine.
Therefore an embodiment of the machine of the above mentioned kind is needed by which only a single machine is necessary instead of several different machines, which machine, even if it may be more expensive than each of the known machines, nevertheless is cheaper than the total expense of two or more of the known machines. Furthermore a single machine does not need as much storage space as several of the known machines.